Sunday, November 7, 2010

Markco's Challenge
Markco of Just My Two Copper has issued a challenge to all of us gold bloggers. Today I answer the call. Here are the questions that he has challenged us to answer:

What was your first post ever? Why did you write it? (don't use an intro post)

What was your favorite post and why?

What was your least favorite post and why?

Find a reader comment you like and respond to it regarding one of your posts. Call them out and thank them for the comment.

Ask your readers to pick a post they found useful on your site.

1) First PostThe Wintergrasp Shuffle - Outdated information as of Patch 4.0.1, but was a very useful post detailing the shuffling of honor points into cut gems. I wanted to start the blog off with a juicy tidbit of information as I was raking in the gold with this strategy. I also wanted to inform readers of how I think and string ideas together across multiple professions.

2) Favorite PostBlacksmith Lockpicking with the follow-up Blacksmith Lockpicking Revisted - When I wrote the original post, I was in a severe case of bloggage (blogger's writer's blog). I was looking for an idea that I hadn't seen elsewhere, yet was very useful. Then the idea to focus on blacksmith lockpicking came to me. I hadn't actually been doing this myself at all. The topic got me curious to see what the break even point would be for blacksmiths that "wasted" bars on keys to open locks. It turned out that this was an excellent way to make easy profits and I had been ignoring this market all together. The follow-up post was a great example of how lucrative this could be and supported my original post very well. I really like these posts as I actually taught myself something in the process of looking for a topic.

3) Least Favorite PostSaving Money With Pre-paid Game Time Cards was meant to be a helpful post on how (in some states) you can save money by purchasing (non-taxable) game time cards instead of using the subscription renewals (which charge tax). Unfortunately, the post was taken as nothing but a referral to an affiliate program (Amazon). I guess people thought I was baiting them to buy cards through my link. It was really just an informative post, but the comments showed that readers didn't understand my point very well. The Time To Pre-Order Cataclsym post was received much better, but still stirred some debate on forums and blogs I read. I still say screw the digital download and get the release date delivery.

4) Reader Comment
I published my Stocking Up For Children's Week post 3-4 weeks before the start of the event. The follow-up post about Exploiting Children's Week had a comment from "Joe" that really made me feel that people weren't just reading the blog. They were reading and implementing. He followed my advice and was able to turn 50g into 2k gold. This was the first post that showed that my blog was actualy helping others. I don't think I have any other comments from this "Joe", but here's a big "THANK YOU" to him. You really helped light a fire in me for blogging as it was now obvious that I acually was helping others.

5) Please Comment
You the readers are why I write this blog. I enjoy spreading my crazy thoughts around the blogosphere.

2 comments:

I like your Winter's Veil posts, and have been gearing up for that, including picking up a few peices of Deeprock Salt for sale. I normally run a lucrative Silk trade - converting cloth into bolts - but have stopped selling with the idea to drop all my bolts on Winter's Veil eve. My normal profit is about 20g per stack, i'm going to try for 60 per stack and see how I make out. Wouldn't have changed my business strategy without your help!